GOVERNMENT is concerned at the low uptake of male circumcision in the country with less than 10% of the 1,2 million target by 2015 having gone under the knife.
SENIOR REPORTER
According to the HIV and Aids and tuberculosis co-ordinator in the Health and Child Welfare ministry, Owen Mugurungi, there was need to scale up efforts to attain the set target.
“We are not happy with the response for male circumcision,” Mugurungi said. “We have only circumcised close to 8% of the target population, whereas we need to make sure that we go way beyond 85% of the target population, so we need to work hard to reach that target.”
The circumcision programme was rolled out in 2009 as part of a cocktail of responses to HIV and Aids as it is believed to minimise the chances of contracting HIV.
Research has shown that although some men have embraced the initiative, a lot more have resisted the programme due to fear of the unknown.
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The procedure, however, has been described as simple and safe, taking less than 20 minutes to be carried out. United Nations Joint Programme on HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe country director Tatiana Shomiliana said they were concerned at the low uptake of circumcision.
She said there were indications the programme was not being taken seriously due to poor promotion.
“We need to talk more as stakeholders. We need to talk more as the Zimbabwean community about these issues because the rates of male circumcision are really low,” she said.